Journey back to Louisville (Day 10 & 11)

My journey home began a little later than planned (which unfortunately had been par for the course since meeting up with my family).  After the cars were packed and condo cleaned up, we got on the road around 10am.  Dad determined that we were going to take a different route back home, a more scenic one.  We left Bozeman on Interstate 90 heading towards Billings but turned off to head towards Gardiner through the Yellowstone River canyon.  Words again cannot describe how beautiful this area of the west is.  I felt like I had almost gone back in time and was part of the movie "A River Runs Through It" (I know - that is such a cliche of MT).

After driving through the beautiful canyon we reached Gardiner, MT and topped off our fuel tanks.  We weren't going to run into somewhere to get gas for quite some time so this was a wise decision.  Gardiner is home to the original entrance to Yellowstone National Park and is also the site of the arch that Teddy Roosevelt stood in front of when dedicating the park.

After driving through the northern part of Yellowstone Park, we came out on the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway.  This highway runs along the route utilized by the Nez Perce tribe to escape the US Calvary.  Below are a couple of links about the highway.  Unfortunately, I did not have time to stop and get pictures of the drive home due to the fact that a) I got left later than planned and b) I lost 2 hours in the drive home (stupid time zones).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming_Highway_296
http://www.wyomingtourism.org/thingstodo/detail/Chief-Joseph-Scenic-Byway/2721

The Chief Joseph Scenic Highway ends when you reach Cody, WY but the awesome scenery did not stop there as well.  After leaving Cody and before the Ten Sleep region of WY, we drove through this amazing area that had the same rock formations as the Badlands.  This was the night before the Super Moon and it was absolutely incredible to see the sunset create all of these deep reds and purples on the rock formations and to see the moon rise in the distance.  After that we drove through the Ten Sleep region and came out onto Interstate 90 again just outside of Gillette, WY.  I drove as long as I could that night and stopped just past Rapid City, SD at a rest stop to sleep for a couple of hours before carrying on.

I woke up and got back on the road around 3am MST and had smooth sailing throughout the rest of the trip.  I ran into a little rush hour traffic in St. Louis, MO (nothing too bad) and was through the city with only an extra .5 hours added on.  Driving between St. Louis and Louisville was very cool that night because of the Super Moon.  I swear, it was so bright I probably could have driven without my headlights.  I got back to the house around 10:30pm, unpacked the essentials from the car and went to bed.  I was exhausted from my whirlwind adventure but wouldn't have traded any of it for the world.

While, I hope that you all have enjoyed the journey and continue to check back periodically for more tales of adventure (and mis-adventure), shenanigans and daily exploits from The Professor's Wife.